Acanthus Launches Management, Development Model To Add Senior Living Communities To Church Grounds

Acanthus Development is moving forward with a new development and management model, with plans for a handful of senior living communities on properties owned by Catholic churches and potentially more after that.

The company, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, expects to break ground on the first of five projects in and near Phoenix, Arizona, by April, with a construction timeline for each of about 14 months, according to Chris Bayley, COO and general counsel.

The first project, located at the St. Benedict Catholic Church, is slated to span 180 beds with services including assisted living and memory care. The communities are set to accept people of all faiths despite their locations on Catholic church land.

The company also has four other similarly sized projects planned with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix.

Though construction crews have not yet started to build the communities, demand from future prospective residents has been “voracious,” Bayley said.

“We have people from those parishes that literally want to sign up for a lease for the room now,” he told Senior Housing News.

Based on the level of interest, Bayley added he expects the communities will reach stabilization by the end of 2026.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix first approached with the idea to bring an assisted living community to St. Benedict Catholic Church in Ahwatukee.

One stipulation from the church was that Acanthus had to agree to adhere to Catholic values and missions with any development it moved forward with. Acanthus Developments built a new management company, Acanthus Senior Living, from the ground-up to meet the church’s requirements.

Bayley said developing on the church properties is offering a slew of benefits for Acanthus, and he believes that the company’s model could pave the way for other similar projects with similar groups across the U.S.

“We don’t have to go out and source real property because that’s literally available to us. We don’t have to source residents because they’re right there, and it becomes a much more of a streamlined process,” he said. “We have a 90-year ground lease [at St. Benedict in Phoenix] where we have a steady rental stream to that parish for the next roughly 100 years.”

Acanthus Senior Living has also pledged to donate 10% of a community’s net operating income once it is stabilized. The company also will perform upgrades such as landscaping and new paint for the entire campus, including both the church and the senior living community.

Bringing senior living to church grounds also will add much-needed services, and residents at each coming community will be able to interact with parishioners and the attached school.

“You’ll have folks that will be able to donate their time to the school. They’ll be mentors and they’ll also be available for any of the programs that the school will have,” Bayley said. “The priests are kind of over the moon about it, because it really does give them quite a platform to be able to minister to the community. It really is a very holistic approach.”

Beyond Acanthus’ first five projects, Bayley said he believes there is room to expand the model with other churches. Other dioceses across the country have expressed interest in adding senior living through the company’s model, including in Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth, Texas; Las Vegas; Seattle and in the state of Montana.

“I can’t be specific right now … but, I would say that there are at least two or three times as many that are currently looking to follow the same path here in the Phoenix diocese,” Bayley said. “We’ve had very specific discussions with other dioceses across the country.”

He added: “This is a very scalable type project where the plans that we are using are essentially the same. Everything’s modular. Any facility [or] any parish that has … four acres of land and the appropriate configurations, we can essentially take our product and put it on there.”

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